How to live stream a tennis match

Tennis is quieter and more predictable than most sports, which makes it a good one to stream. The challenge is that a high school dual match or a tournament puts several matches on several courts at the same time, and families want to watch their player's court. This guide covers the camera angle, keeping games, sets and tiebreaks on screen, serve stats, and how to cover more than one court.

Before you start: rights and the courts

Confirm you can stream. For school matches, check with your athletic director or state association first. Some postseason events can stream only to the NFHS Network. Our guide to streaming rights covers the questions to ask. For club and tournament play, ask the tournament director.

Test the internet at the courts. Tennis courts are often at the far end of campus or in a park. Run a speed test from your camera spot and look at the upload number. If you plan to stream several courts, remember each stream needs its own upload. Add them up before you promise every court. See streaming with bad internet.

Camera placement

The classic tennis angle is behind one baseline, high and centered on the center mark, so both players and the whole court are in frame. Viewers can follow the ball and judge whether shots are in.

• Get above the windscreen. Most courts have fences with windscreens. Shoot from bleachers, a balcony or a building overlooking the courts. If you have to shoot through the fence, put the lens right against a gap in the mesh so the wire falls out of focus.
• Lock the shot. A good tennis camera barely moves. Frame the full court with a little room above the far player for lobs, lock the tripod and leave it. One unattended camera per court is normal.
• Set exposure manually. Hard courts and bright sky push auto exposure around. Set it for the court surface. On sunny afternoons, check which end the sun will be at as the match goes on.
• Use the sound. Tennis audio is part of the experience. A mic near the court picks up the ball, the players' calls and the score. Announcers should sit away from the court and keep their voices down during points.

Laptop or phone setup

• Laptop and OBS. A camera into a capture card, OBS on a laptop and the scoreboard as a browser source. See streaming to YouTube with OBS and a scoreboard.
• The ScoreCastr iPhone app. In public beta on TestFlight, free during the beta. An iPhone on a tripod films and streams with the scorebug built into the video, which suits a court with no laptop nearby. Scoring in the app is football first, with more sports coming, so the scorekeeper runs the tennis dashboard in a phone browser at scorecastr.co. See the two-phone setup guide. Each streaming phone uses about 5.4 GB of data for two hours at 1080p30, and phones get hot in the sun while charging, so shade them.

Not sure which suits your courts? Compare them in phone vs. laptop setups.

Games, sets and tiebreaks on the scorebug

The ScoreCastr tennis scorebug tracks games and sets, and flags break point, set point and match point so viewers know when a point matters. Set the format when you create the match: best of 1, 3 or 5 sets, with a tiebreak at 6-6.

Tips for the scorekeeper:

• Score every point as it ends. Tennis viewers notice a scorebug that lags. Sit where you can see the court and hear the server's call.
• Agree on the score with the players. In many school and junior matches players call their own score with no chair umpire. If your score disagrees with what the server announces, check it at the next changeover.
• Check the format before the first serve. Confirm the number of sets and how a deciding set is played with the coaches or tournament desk.
• Keep going if the signal drops. Changes made while slow or offline are saved on the device and sent when the connection comes back.

Advantage or no-ad, and serve stats

Many high school and college matches use no-ad scoring: at deuce, one deciding point wins the game. Other events use traditional advantage scoring. Find out which before the match, because it changes how long games run and how you score them.

StatsCastr is free and runs in your phone's browser. Choose ITF-style advantage or US scholastic no-ad, and singles or doubles. It tracks aces, double faults, winners, errors, break points and serve stats.

Tennis is one of the easier sports to stat because every point has a clear ending. One person can log each point and credit the player. For a coach, first-serve percentage and break points won tell the story of most matches. Share the live link with families (no sign-in, refreshed every 15 seconds) and export a PDF or CSV afterward.

With ScoreCastr Pro, link the StatsCastr game to the match and stats fill in on the stream graphics, while ScoreCastr still owns the score. See putting live stats on your stream.

Covering several courts

A high school dual match runs singles and doubles at the same time. Here's how to scale:

1. One match per court. In ScoreCastr, each match has its own dashboard and its own overlay link. Create one match for each court you'll stream, named by court number, before match day.
2. One scorekeeper per court. Each scorekeeper opens only their court's dashboard on their phone. A parent or teammate who isn't playing works well.
3. One stream per court. Each court gets its own camera and its own stream, with that court's overlay link in OBS or that court's scorebug in the iPhone app. Use separate live events on your platform so viewers can pick a court.
4. Check your plan. The free plan covers one active match. Starter covers 10, Pro covers 25, and Enterprise is unlimited.

If you only have one camera, stream the top singles court or the closest match, and share the public match pages for the others. Anyone can follow the live score on a public match page. For a multi-day event, see planning a tournament weekend broadcast.

Sponsors and changeovers

Players change ends after the first game and then after every two games, and there's a longer break between sets. A short sponsor spot can fit at a changeover, but keep it brief and come back before the next serve. The set break gives you more room. During play, the sponsor spot on the scorebug (Starter and up) keeps a sponsor on screen without cutting away. Our guide to selling sponsorships covers what to offer.

Match-day checklist

• The day before: create one match per court, set the format and enter both players or pairs.
• 60 minutes before: set up cameras above the windscreens and run a speed test with every stream in mind.
• 45 minutes: confirm advantage or no-ad, number of sets and the lineup for each court. Give each scorekeeper their court's dashboard.
• 30 minutes: start a private test stream for each court and check the right scorebug is on the right court.
• First serve: go live and score every point.
• Changeovers and set breaks: check stream health, phone temperature and battery.
• Final: show the final score, end each stream and export the stats.